The present invention consists of improvements in the mechanical and functional structure of stringed instruments, tending to achieve a perfection of the sound produced thereby and, preferably, designed to modify the structure of violins and guitars presently made according to conventional techniques.
Violins and all musical instruments of the same family include those in which the musical sound is obtained by making the four strings of the instrument vibrate by means of a bow. Guitars, on the other hand, consist of a set of strings mounted on a wooden box which has an almost closed air space. Some force of the vibrations generated when the strings are played upon with the fingers is communicated to the box and to the air space in which the corresponding vibrations are established. These, in turn, make the air between the instrument and the listener vibrate, in other words, they produce sound waves which reach the listener. The sound of a guitar, aside from the acoustics of the site where the instrument is being held and the skill of the artist, depends on the vibration transfer from the strings to the sound box and, in turn, therefrom to the air.
It is known that the best violins existing presently are those which were made at the end of the eighteenth century by Antonio Stradivari and by Guarneri, their models having gone done in history, and which today have not been bettered. A similar thing happens in the construction of guitars where the manufacturers, due to the special sensitiveness thereof, achieve therewith highly tuned and perfect sounds. However, this constructive technique is based, both for violins as well as for guitars, on the special knowledge the manufacturers have of the subject and not on well defined principles or laws. Therefore, the quality of the instrument is not known until it is finished. Thus, after the manufacturing process, if the instrument had a relatively deficient sound, there was no process by which the acoustic conditions thereof could be improved, and a new instrument had to be made.